


Snippets from the Sentinel

by NerdyKat



Series: Cut Off One Head [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Memory Lane, Out of Timeline, Speeches, Thanksgiving, What We're Thankful For
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-03 04:06:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5275925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdyKat/pseuds/NerdyKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellie makes Thanksgiving dinner for the Avengers, and everyone remembers Thanksgivings of the past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snippets from the Sentinel

**Author's Note:**

> This fic exists outside of the time line of The Sentinel. It will never exist inside of the timeline. It's just a fluff story because of the holiday. And also I might feel a tiny bit guilty about what I'm about to put my characters through (spoilers!).

When Tony blurrily stumbled into the kitchen on Thanksgiving morning, he was shocked to find that the staff he had hired weren’t in the kitchen. Instead, Ellie was alone at one of the islands, chopping a huge pile of vegetables.  
  
“Where is everyone? We’re having Thanksgiving dinner in, like, eight hours,” he said, shocked.  
  
Ellie barely glanced up. “The Thanksgiving staff? I fired them,” she said, not stopping what she was doing.  
  
Tony stared at her. “Why the hell would you fucking do that?” Tony asked.  
  
“Thanksgiving’s my holiday,” Ellie said, checking on a huge clear tub where Tony could see Ellie was brineing three large turkies. “It’s about home and family, not about hiring people to cook mass quantities of food. Now, I have about sixty pounds of turkey to cook, not to mention ten pies, and the mountain of stuffing, three kinds of potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry salad, and gravy. So unless you’re going to help me, I suggest that you get the hell out of my kitchen.”  
  
Rather shocked by the outburst, Tony wandered out of the kitchen and into the common area where Clint, Steve, Bruce, and Natasha were all watching the parade on TV. “AOL’s crazy,” Tony said, Pepper passing him a mug of coffee.  
  
“No argument from us,” Clint said. “Thanksgiving’s huge for her. I think she actually might have managed to order more food than we can eat.”  
  
“She fired my staff!” he complained.  
  
“She likes to do it herself,” Natasha explained.  
  
“My head chef studied at Le Cordon Bleu!” Tony argued again.  
  
“So did she,” Steve noted, watching an inflated Mickey Mouse on TV. “I was actually hoping to get to taste her cooking.”  
  
“Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!” Sam greeted, entering the common floor. “Lee just put out breakfast if anyone wants some.”  
  
Everyone scrambled to the dining table where a row of various egg bake dishes were laid out in front of everyone, toast, homemade pop-tarts (those mysteriously all disappeared, but Thor was later spotted with crumbs in his beard), fresh fruit, and several mounds of bacon. To the side were jugs of orange juice, strong coffee, and from the label, what looked to be mimosas in a huge pitcher.  
  
“Did AOL sleep at all last night?” Tony wondered as he piled his plate high. He took a bite of egg bake and moaned in contentment.  
  
“Probably not,” Natasha said, doing the same. Steve frowned, but grabbed two plates and sampled some of everything. “She never does the night before Thanksgiving. She’s like a kid at Christmas.”  
  
Sam had two plates of food as well. “I’m just going to go take this to her,” he said.  
  
Steve wished Bucky was there. He had missed so much. It only gave Steve more determination to go out and find him, for his niece's sake.  
  
Tony had already emptied his first plate and was going for seconds, muttering about work. Bruce stumbled in, Natasha and Clint had returned to watching the parade and Steve followed.  
  
“How’s your first official Thanksgiving in the modern era going?” Clint asked Steve.  
  
“Reminds me of the last Thanksgiving I had,” Steve said with a smile. “The Commandos were in Italy bringing down HYDRA bases. The Army somehow got few turkey dinners to us. Jim was older than all of us by a fair bit, and he somehow convinced some of the locals to give us food so that he could doctor it up. Gabe managed to get us a few bottles of wine and we spent the night telling tall tales of the largest Thanksgiving dinner we’ve ever eaten.” Steve laughed, remembering the looks on James’ and Jacques’ faces as the tales grew wilder and wilder. “James and Jacques had never had a Thanksgiving dinner, so it was a bit of a shocking experience.”  
  
Steve grew silent then, remembering the Commandos. The others were lost in their own past Thanksgivings when Pepper came in with a familiar face. “Guess who was down in the lobby?” Pepper asked.  
  
Natasha immediately got up and tackled the new arrival, wrestling her to the ground. Skye, for it was Skye, put up a fair fight before Natasha managed to pin her. “Seriously, Tasha?” Skye complained. “It’s Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not the time to beat up your family.”  
  
“Depends on the family,” quipped Clint as Natasha helped Skye to her feet.  
  
“Hey Half-Byte,” Tony greeted. “Nice work identifying those holes in the R&D security servers.”  
  
“Thanks for making it a challenge,” Skye said with a grin. “How far towards melt-down status are we with Ellie?”  
  
“Can’t tell, she’s kicked us out,” Clint said. “I think she’s trying to make up for us missing the last couple years. Sam’s in there at least and JARVIS is monitoring her.”  
  
“Remember Boxing Day in 2009?” Skye said with a smile.  
  
Natasha actually smiled. “She nearly set her apartment on fire that year.”  
  
“I still love that apartment. Paris is beautiful that time of year.”  
  
“The Paris apartment?” Steve asked, remembering. “She brought you there?”  
  
“The first time she did, I was sixteen and had just removed myself from the system.” Skye explained. “I’d never been out of New York, much less out of the country. I had so much to be thankful for that year. Every year after, I can’t help but remember how close I came to not having what I have now.”  
  
“I remember the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had,” Tony said quietly. “I was about six. Mom and Dad were overseas and had forgotten it was Thanksgiving, so Jarvis took me home with him to spend Thanksgiving with his wife and children. It was the first time I remember that I wasn’t Howard Stark’s son.”  
  
They all nodded at that. The conversation drifted again. JARVIS switched from the parade to a football game without being prompted and someone suggested some insane version of capture the flag in the tower. The idea caught on and everyone spent several hours playing those games. Eventually, JARVIS politely informed them to ‘get their butts up to the dining room, since dinner was served,’ as Ellie put it.  
  
Steve said grace and they all dug into their food. Everyone silent until Clint spoke up. “I remember my first Thanksgiving with the circus,” he said quietly. “I’d never seen such food or so much love. This, tonight, reminds me of that.”  
  
“I think this Thanksgiving is my favorite Thanksgiving,” Sam said quietly. “Riley… Riley would have liked all of you.”  
  
“What about you, AOL. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving memory?” Tony asked.  
  
“It was the November after we found Skye,” Ellie said. Skye looked down at her plate and became extremely interested in her potatoes. “I had no reason to celebrate before, but when Skye mentioned that she had never had a real turkey dinner, the three of us cooked up a storm all day. It was in that moment I knew that I had a family,” Skye came over and hugged Ellie. Natasha and Clint smiled. “I’d never had one of those before and had so thrown myself into finding any hint of my father that I had lost myself. Tasha, Clint, and Skye have always reminded me of the good that is happening in the here and now.”  
  
Ellie stood up and raised her glass. “Tomorrow holds promise,” she said. “To find Bucky,” she looked at Steve, “and end HYDRA,” she looked at Clint and Natasha, “and avenge those we have lost.” She looked at Tony who nodded. “But today. Today I am thankful for what I have. I have friends and family who will fight with me tomorrow and celebrate with me today.”  
  
We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;  
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;  
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing;  
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

~ Adrianus Valerius

 

**Author's Note:**

> I am thankful for you, my dear readers. I hope that this story finds you well.
> 
> Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!


End file.
